#460 — When the Center Cannot Hold
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Waking Up with Sam Harris
4.6 • 29.7K Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
Sam Harris speaks with Jonah Goldberg about the state of American conservatism and the Trump presidency. They discuss the politicization of federal institutions, the erosion of legal norms, the schism between Never Trump conservatives and the nationalist right, infighting over figures like Nick Fuentes, J.D. Vance's political future, a theory of mind for Tucker Carlson, the prospects for regime change in Iran, and other topics.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Making Sense podcast. This is Sam Harris. Just a note to say that if you're hearing this, you're not currently on our subscriber feed, and we'll only be hearing the first part of this conversation. In order to access full episodes of the Making Sense podcast, you'll need to subscribe |
| 0:21.9 | at samharris.org. We don't run ads on the podcast, and therefore it's made possible entirely |
| 0:27.3 | through the support of our subscribers. So if you enjoy what we're doing here, please consider |
| 0:31.7 | becoming one. I am here with Jonah Goldberg. |
| 0:38.3 | Jonah, thanks for joining me again. |
| 0:39.7 | Hey, it's great to be back. |
| 0:40.7 | It was great to see you. |
| 0:41.7 | So I think it's been about six months since you were on the podcast, and a few things have happened. |
| 0:46.2 | I think I looked at it. |
| 0:47.3 | It was somewhere around August of last year. |
| 0:49.9 | I have a list of things that I think we could profitably discuss, but what's most concerning |
| 0:55.6 | you these days, where's your head been on our political landscape? |
| 0:59.9 | If we're talking politically, right? |
| 1:02.8 | I mean, there's all sorts of, you know, the AI thing is interesting in all sorts of ways. |
| 1:07.4 | We could talk about that all. |
| 1:08.3 | But if you're just talking about like get Goldberg on to do report from inside the Beltway, what's going on with politics. |
| 1:14.2 | I think the continued erosion of, and politicization of our institutions in, in distressing ways, |
| 1:22.0 | is probably the main thing I'm concerned about. I mean, we're talking on, you know, February 19th or whatever, |
| 1:29.6 | like by a time that people listen to this, we could be invading Iran. So that could make anything, |
| 1:34.6 | I say, kind of outdated. But just a potpourri, you know, like just a couple days ago or yesterday, |
| 1:40.2 | Kevin Hassett, chief economic advisor of the president, you know, he said that some staff |
| 1:47.2 | economists who did a paper verifying what economists have been saying for 30 years, 50 years, |
... |
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